Mr Blair senior, who was 89, was the son of travelling entertainers who gave him up for adoption by a Glasgow shipworker.

A Communist as a young man, he served in the Army in the Second World War, then after demobilisation studied law in his spare time to become a barrister and later a law lecturer in Australia and at Durham University.

He became a member of the Conservative Party and chairman of the Durham Conservative Association, but his dream of entering Parliament was scotched by a stroke at the age of 40, when his son Tony was 11.

Mr Blair with his father

Tragedy struck once more when his wife Hazel - Tony's mother - died of throat cancer in 1975.

Leo remarried and moved to Shropshire with his second wife, Olwyn. He joined the Labour Party in his 70s, when his son became leader.

Tony frequently spoke of his closeness to his father, and named his fourth child after him in 2000.